This happens to me all the time. My most recent freak out was when someone pointed out that Ben Linus’s dad on LOST was actually Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.
Are you sure it was Jerry Orbach? I believe S. Epatha Merkerson played a crime victim a couple of seasons before she became Lt. Van Buren.
ETA: Nevermind, I googled it and he did indeed play a sleazy defense attorney in early L&O. I guess they like to try people out.
I’ve never seen Lost and didn’t care for Napoleon Dynamite, but when you said Uncle Rico, I knew you were talking about Jon Gries. To me, he’ll always be the brilliant eccentric Lazlo Hollyfeld in Real Genius. In fact, that’s mine, realizing that the uncle in Napoleon Dynamite was Lazlo.
Two other examples of this: Lionel Jefferson was played by Mike Evans on All In The Family and the initial season of The Jeffersons. Mike Evans left the series and Lionel was played by Damon Evans (no relation) for three seasons. Then Mike Evans took the role back over in the fourth through tenth seasons.
Barbara Bel Geddes played Ellie Ewing on Dallas the first five seasons. Donna Reed played Ellie in the sixth season. Then Bel Geddes came back and played the part for seasons seven through twelve.
Jesse L. Martin (aka Det. Ed Green) also played a drug dealer named Mouse on a long ago episode of Law & Order. I’ve never seen it, I only know this because he mentioned it once in an interview.
Holy Jesus crap, you’re right! She still has some baby fat too. Take a look peeps:
Diane Neal was in an episode of SVU before being cast as ADA Casey Novak; she played one of a trio of women who raped a male stripper at a party.
My biggest flashback forehead-slapper was seeing Nigel Hawthorne in Firefox. I was a big fan of Yes, Minister, where Hawthorne played one of the co-leads. I’d seen Firefox when it came out, but didn’t recognize him until seeing it again years later. It’s not a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo, either; he plays one of the scientists at the Russian air base who helps Clint Eastwood steal a MiG fighter.
I watched Lost and Ugly Betty, both in their entirety, and it never dawned on me that Widmore and Mr. Meade were the same guy until a few weeks ago. It’s not even as if they were very different characters.
I remember that too from a bout with insomnia. I remember she had really thick eyebrows. Actually Miami Vice re-runs are awesome for seeing people before they were famous.
A weird recognition for me was one day thinking back on sci-fi/fantasy flicks I liked as a kid, and realizing the one older lawyer guy John Cage from Ally McBeal, the one the called The Biscuit, was the lead character in the movie Dragonslayer.
In the “Our Gang” short “Good Bad Boys,” *Hugh Beaumont has a brief appearance as a judge’s assistant. I’ve seen that short many times and never noticed him. And once I knew, I still never would have recognized him.